RP: 5th Fleet [Chapter Eight] Castles and Catgirls

Wooded Path

Witnessing Sif's physical contact, Werner attempted to produce a big smile with hopes to indicate good will. Though something about Sif's smile caught him off guard... she did forgive him right? Sure her hand was abnormally hot, kinda like the barrel of an automatic weapon, but that's because she literally had a small flame in her hand a short moment ago, and she wasn't doing it on purpose... right?

A single drop of sweat threatened to drip down Werner's confused face, "We're friends now.... right? Friends?" he winced. This interaction was by far more important than to learn the magic of this world. After all, everyone else was busy learning magic, why did he have to learn it as well?

Wooded Path

Tomiko noticed that "Nymeria" never replied. The Neko moonlighting as a Drow would be a tough nut to crack it seemed. Well, this world is strange. Perhaps she's having trouble adjusting, she reasoned. The group seemed to be disastrously incompatible. She hoped her assessment was wrong.

The blush on the princesses face only stoked the flames in her heart. She would have proceeded to make advances towards Adelaide except that she really wanted to learn magic and she didn't want to distract her. Her hand moved to Adelaide's before she had finished speaking. "I am glad to be learning magic from you, Miss Adelaide," Tomiko said sweetly.

Mioshi's display was impressive. She returned the smile with a shy smile of her own. This woman was attractive but something about her sent shivers down her spine, and not in a good way.

Wooded Path

Was Werner's pinkie hot? Burning up? Being seared by a smol little hand holding onto its end like a hot iron being used to brand him? Or was it all in his mind? The little woman's little smile was vexing, and all the more when Sif finished and let go without so much as a word. If he ever did touch the tip of his pinkie, the man really would be stumped; it was so impossibly hard to tell if it ever was fired up. There was something more interesting going on than his pinkie however, and Sif watched with her best poker face.

She wondered what the process would look like for them.

"O-oh!" Taken aback by the flashy display, Adelaide wasn't sure what to say right away, but, this snowy cat woman was on to something at least. "Y-yes," the princess adjusted her round glasses. "Bards are capable of infusing their songs and ballads with magic to give them various effects to their allies," she began to explain. "It's said that some are even able to do the exact opposite to their enemies, but I believe such is rare due to how...distasteful many feel it to be. Awful songs about things nobody wants to hear and all that. But before that, a first step." Brushing a few stray strands of brown hair out of her face, she coyly smiled at Tomiko's comment.

"Well, it's nothing much, I assure you!" the young woman began. "Anyways, if you've all taken a base element into mind, we can get started. Fire, water, earth, air or lightning will do - just imagine your magic taking form and floating in front of you. If it's earth or water, some from nearby will accumulate instead." Reaching out, Adelaide offered her hands to anyone that would take them. "A circle will do I think." Once everyone that was interested was in position, she took a deep breath, her bosom rising and falling. "Alright. We'll begin."

*****

Mana

There was nothing. A peaceful and serene nothing, all white around them as they weightlessly floated, alone and without a single thing on them to their name. But, they could all feel it, someone gently picking, poking, prodding in their minds. Trying to tease open something that was closed. It felt like hands, smooth and silken - Adelaide's hands. Before they knew it though, the white eternity was specked with a hint of color in front of them.

A hint which suddenly became an overwhelming flood.

*****

Wooded Path

"Huh. So that's what it looks like," Titus offhandedly commented.

"I wonder if I looked this dumb too," Sif remarked, watching them all sitting in a circle and blankly staring into space. "So. Who wants to touch them? Those big ones?" she asked, completely and utterly straight faced and serious. Titus' eyes widened, and glancing at the great pillows of perfection, fought against his base desires by quickening his pace.

The elements suddenly came to life right in front of each person's face, just as they awoke to witness the fruits of their journey.

Wooded Path

Yuukito sat somewhat awkwardly beside Tahariel, leaning slightly away from the spectacle and watching as everyone else was introduced to magic. The scientist was still fiddling with the metal club she had bought for herself, feeling really awkward and kind of lonely. She hadn't opted in for getting magic powers, because having someone reveal her arcane powers to her felt strange and kind of invasive, like having a close friend rifle through the many folders of shame she kept on her personal computer, but now she just felt awkward for being the odd one out.

Wooded Path

As the others came out of their stupor, Yuukito found herself with a pair of tiny green eyes staring up at her.

"Oi," the Mini-Neko verbally prodded at her, having left the front seat. "Not too excited about magic, huh?" The question was asked with the tone of someone terminally bored, but looking at her little feline ears, they drooped. Was it possible that Sif was worried for her, all on her own? "I guess it's not for everyone, but that means you might be less combat effective," she observed. 'Then again, having our bodies acting as part of some guidance system or conduit for foreign nano-machines isn't the most awesome sounding idea ever either,' the mini-squad leader admitted in the young woman's head. Playing around with her own magic, Sif summoned a fireball, and began playing around with it. 'If we turn into puddles of grey goo. You tell our story,' she continued, her voice utterly aloof.

By now, Sif created a second little fireball, and was trying to exchange them between her hands.

Yuukito jumped visibly when addressed by Sif, staring down at the little superior officer with wide eyes. "U-uuuh," she blurted, blushing a bright red. Was Sif upset at her for not learning Magic? Did she actually have an order to learn magic and didn't hear it? Oh crap, is she in troub- Her frantic, self-conscious train of thought ended when she saw Sif's ears drooping a little, pouting at her. "I-I..." she stammered, trying to word her reasons for not learning magic without using that analogy again. "I-I guess, if the magic backfired on us somehow, i-it might save lives if there's someone not exposed to it?" Her eyes tracked the little fire ball Sif was playing with, feeling a little jealous; it DID look like fun.
'I'll be sure to do that,' Yuukito responded mentally, smirking a little.

Wind.

It was the wind.

Mioshi breathed it out and saw the faint trace of silver curl in front of her like a wisp of dissipating smoke. The flutist had breathed in the wind, and now she breathed it out. Naturally, Mioshi knew what this was; she had been briefed on this planet, what was known of it, and scientifically and mechanically speaking all of this could be broken down into its component parts.

But it felt like magic, and so that didn’t matter. It felt like she could call the wind. And, wasn’t that what mattered about magic, anyway? Mioshi set all of her knowledge of science away, all of her knowledge of history away, and pursed her lips.

She whistled. The silver came back and swirled properly in front of her, seeming to come out of her breath itself, and then it disappeared.

This confused Mioshi until she saw a flash of red. Surprised, she barely had time to catch the thing before it careened into her face.

A bird that looked a bit like a cardinal had sped from a nearby tree and nearly bludgeoned her in the forehead! She had caught it, and the distressed and disoriented animal flapped against her fingers before, confused, seeming to realize that it was caught. It panicked. Not sure whether to let it go or not, Mioshi helds its wings closed and, as confused as any cat could ever be who had caught a bird without meaning to, gave the Princess a puzzled look.

“Was this supposed to happen?”

"Ah, are you taking the path of the noble warrior with me then? An excellent choice!" Werner praised Yuukito with a victorious smile "You know, it would be good to have someone by my side! Besides, magic might be a little overrated, I mean come on, magic is simply.... magic." after all, magic was a fictional concept where they came from. It was no surprise why Werner was visually taken aback, to have his superior say that not possessing magic could potentially weaken him. Werner took a small breath as his grip over the reigns tightened slightly while he maintained a smile. Werner disagreed.

"I personally think that not having magic doesn't make you any less effective in combat at all! That claim is frankly absurd, one simply specializes in another tactic I think. Having an entire group of mages I think weakens the group overall. Mages aren't impervious to everything, and if everyone is a mage, well then we are all easier to counter."

He surprised himself, he didn't bother to ask one about one of this world's greatest features. He mentally chastised himself as he turned his head at the general direction of both Titus and Adelaide with a panicked curiosity, "Isn't that right Titus, Adelaide? Mages do have a weakness, right? Like an easy way to kill them, or something to perhaps stop them from casting spells?"

Depending on their answer, Werner might have screwed himself over.

Wooded Path

Tomiko snapped back into her body. She gasped and took a slow, deep breath. She tried to recall where she was and what she was doing. The memories were hazy at first. Suddenly it all flooded back at once. She noticed droplets of water present in the air had coalesced into a small sphere of water in front of her face. Her eyes widened.

"You did it!" She exclaimed. Her concentration broken, the sphere of water fell out of the air and onto her spider silk dress. The water mostly rolled off of the silk, but it did leave a damp spot on her chest. She ignored it, flinging herself at Adelaide and giving her a big hug, inadvertently getting her wet as well.

"Thank you so much!" Tomiko said, rubbing her face against the Princesses affectionately. She remembered their position though and sat back in her seat. "That was amazing." She said, cheeks darkening."

Wooded Path

Chaos. Complete and utter chaos. As Mioshi calmly freaked out about the bird that was freaking out and that she caught, Coco woke up from the princess' lap with a terrified yelp as Tomiko made to glomp her.

"W-what's going on?!" Adelaide cried, adding to the chaos herself with an expression of fear and panic. "N-nobody told me it'd go like this!" Breathing faster and faster her eyes frantically darted in between every. Single. Weirdo. Her great chest heaving, the princess started to honestly hyperventilate. Standing off to the side, the tiniest person simply shrugged.

"Eh. I couldn't care less if you went with or without magic," Sif remarked, all too bored despite the fact she was now juggling a trio of fireballs. "Just be sure the both of you support us all in some way or form." Her eyes quickly settled on Werner. "For an example, you and Titus are the only front line fighters, and he won't stay with us much longer," she pointed out. The Mini-Neko was all too aware of their deficiencies, but, hardly made a remark. They had to learn on their own, and for children, what better way was there to learn than to make mistakes?

As Titus kept pace with the carriage however, he simply stared at them all like they were completely and utterly insane. For better or worse however, the forest was ending, and up ahead were a few legionnaires, standing watch.

"Well. I must say this has been...interesting, but our time together has come to a close," the young man sighed. "The village is not far from here - you should easily get there before nightfall," he remarked.

Adelaide fainted.

"W-warrior?!" Yuukito blurted, sounding horrified at the thought of being a frontline fighter, and gave Werner a pout. She'd gone into all this not really thinking much about her role in combat. The club she bought was just to complete the look, after all. The scientist cuddled up a little closer to Tahariel, nodding nervously to Sif, though she was at a loss as to how she might help out in battle. She didn't have a Ph.D in cracking skulls, unfortunately.

Mioshi, the other ‘adult’ in the group aside from the comically diminutive Sif, decided to let the bird go when someone fainted. She could take being savaged by a beak the size of a pinprick, but not the loss of the group’s foremost (functional) expert on magic.

She gave the bird a good head start by tossing it up in the air.

Not a second went by, and she didn’t spare it another glance, but Mioshi shot forward to catch the collapsing Adelaide before she could tumble from the wagon. It wasn’t even a close thing; Mioshi had a lot of experience with split-second decisions, or at least she fancied it that way after succeeding. After she had settled the girl aright, cradling her in an arm into her own lap, she took off her hat and began fanning her.

The white flutist glanced over the displaced Coco in silent judgment, but without saying a word of it. Not everybody could live up to Mioshi’s standards. Saying so would just make it worse. She looked forward to Sif’s miniature back, and then down again to her charge.

“If someone could get one of the waterskins, please?” she asked, and it pleased her to use a musical tonality.

She felt a small weight on the crown of her head, and flicked an ear at it. She flicked the ear again when the bird pecked at it.

Werner quickly gave those he asked a question to, furrowed brows full of panic, were they ignoring him again? Was it something he said? Werner was almost one hundred percent sure that his question was free of any offending language! Damn, was it possible that something went horribly wrong when he learned the language?

"Hey hey! I asked a question, and I am still here! So why doesn't anyone awns--" Yet, as if it was the universe's cue, his rant had been cut short.

He scratched and pulled at his head in frustration. Of course, why didn't Werner foresee this sooner? Merely pressing his concerns always leads to something else happening. Coco's appearance with the consul and sudden outburst of his own language, the sudden haste at the market where the Drider was unable to answer his question, and now someone fainting, daring to take precedence.

What is wrong with this blasted planet?! Did it have a sudden inclination to hate me? By the stars above!

Werner pulled at the reigns and fidgeted a bit. He had to test his hypothesis, there was no way that THIS concern would be overlooked. There was no way. He prepared to space out his words, and focused on his annunciation them as well. It didn't matter if what he said sounded monotone, as long as there were no chances for any misgivings, he would be fine.

"I am going to, stop by the village. We can rest, for the day. Will she, be fine? Or should I, stop for a while?"

She should be fine, Coco could most likely heal her with magic. If not, there was a doctor with them. There was no way they would not awnser his question. There was no way.....

For the more alert members of the party a series of muffled pops and cracks could be heard from behind a tree a short ways ahead of the carriage. Then there was a heavy grunt.

The second noise was very much louder than the first and heralded a figure stepping out from around their hiding spot. The person was quite unfair - skin a deep russet brown made darker by scattered freckles - and had a black tattoo curling from the left side of their face cross jaw and cheek. The mark was in the manner of a scar more than anything else. Androgynous with a fighter's zigzagging crook of a nose and a gait tending towards the mannish, the figure completed a stretch settling the leather cuirass they wore and shifting the heavy, woodframed pack to a comfortable spot on their shoulders.

Black eyes slit open and made a lazy viewing of the group. With a snort the person reached out behind the tree grasped a spear and then simply moved it to where it leaned for everyone to see. The stranger then crossed their arms, bare save for a pair of bracers and another black tattoo circled above the left elbow, keeping their hands well away from either the buckler or square-sheathed blade resting on their hips.

"Right." The voice was raucous, but more to the feminine side of such a tone. The person blinked lazily and shook their head - their short mess of hair not even shifting with the motion. "Right. Ya' lot might s'well turn t'oll round."

A much less clear undertone followed that could have been an argument on 'ain't needin' and 'don got patience' that's overall meaning was, somewhat, unclear.

Rolling Countryside

"Who, what, where?!" Coco started, her hands raised up in some silly mockery of martial arts. Despite having been abruptly woken up by the minor bedlam that had erupted, the little girl took one glance at Adelaide. "Oh, forget the water skin. Just pull," the handmaiden pointed. Following her cue, Mioshi eventually reached down to the princess with her hand and pulled at the knot at the young woman's chest. With a great bounce, laces came loose as she suddenly gasped, eyes slowly opening to look up at the snowy Neko and drowsily take in the scene around her. Sif however, had her attention elsewhere.

"What do you mean by that?" the Mini-Neko asked the newcomer in the open. Just half a foot tall, she was fast and at the forefront of the wagon. In truth, she didn't like the look of this already - those that fled a fight always had the same look to them, and it was something she was all too familiar with. 'Give me a sitrep, but make it fit the setting Bird.' The Mini-Neko was rude, yes, but Sif cared more about getting to the meat of the issue.

Drama over, Titus shook his head again and finally answered Werner.

"People with magic are people with magic - another tool or weapon. And a powerful one," he firmly stated. Looking at Yuukito, the Legionnaire added, "You best find a way to be useful besides making merry with song or dance - if you be bard, best take up a weapon and be learned with it." Glancing at the other two Legionnaires as they kept their distance, the young man turned to them one last time. "Unless there is anything else, I wish to be off - home waits."

A mental snort telepathically spirited the edge of Sif's mind and the Elysian trooper in front of the Micro-Neko scratched a circle around the back of her neck while taking another, long, gander on the... assortment of soldiers in front of her.

Looking back towards Sif, eyes narrowed, Bia spit into the dirt. "Yer what - a twee Dökkálfar? An'-" The group packed in the carriage was given a look that held a lot of clear meaning, but very little necessary observation. "-yah've popped out 'ere wit' some gaggle of half-grown princesses-" Werner was next in line and the man received a smirk as he was looked over. "-their beardless toy of a manservant-" The tirade continued on towards Titus. "-an ah elf's dog tha' rides pretty but swings ah sword less than a gelding's balls."

Mioshi received only a short gander that was capped with a rather professional nod before Bia turned her attention back towards the group's Neko-in-Charge.

"Me on tha' otteh hand? I got six ghosts pawin' abou' my neck jus' ta get this far. A war behind me an' ah shattered mercenary company rammed up my arse." The self-proclaimed mercenary bent into a squat so she was almost on level with Sif. A smile burst across the Elysian's previously disgusted face. "So that all out'a've our way - I couldn' be an' damn 'appier than ta welcome ya' in ta all the pro'lems my own dead set of wartlings bled 'emsleves dry fer."

The Elysian looked up towards everyone behind Sif and gave them a grin that celebrated death brought about in a span of more than half a hundred years. "Us real pe'ple-" A finger was jabbed in the Mini-Neko's direction. "-are gon' talk. None of ya fall over dead until yer stuck wit' orders that 'low that much from yer hides."

The newcomer lowered her voice as she began rapidly talking 'shop' towards Sif. There wasn't much information that rose above a dull murmur but a few details occasionally slipped up and became audible.

"... gobs... undred like 'be more... alry type tha' eats what it tramples ta... die easy 'most as bad as... cation i' solid stuv'urn crew too..."

His hands twitched violently, unconsciously motioning the horses to go past the pair that Werner could seriously pay less attention to. He rose up as much as he could without risking his balance, turning to face Titus.

"WHAT KIND OF HALF-ASSED ANSWER WAS THAT?!" Werner roared at Legionnaires "I ASKED ABOUT THE MOST EFFECTIVE WAY TO KILL MAGIC USERS WITHOUT GETTING MYSELF KILLED!"

Werner bit his tongue with a fury, and sat down once more with a childish pout. Why was it so hard to get something so simple?

Then suddenly, an idea struck him. Asking questions was a fruitless endeavor, so Werner decided he would stop asking at all. Instead, he would take the approach he was used to the most. He smiled at how simple it was, and snapped back into reality. He would force the answers out of everyone he could.

For now though, he pulled the horses to a stop, and waited for Sif's return. He gained a renewed hope for finding answers once more.

Mioshi smiled at the rousing, recently unrestricted woman in her lap and fanned her gently just a few more times before replacing her broad-brimmed hat upon the crown of her head, careful her ears slipped into their fashioned vents. This hat, she tipped to Bia, in the genial way that any traveler would tip such a hat to such a person, whether or not they were known. Her ears turned down, too, in the same moment, giving the dip more depth than it might otherwise have had.

Bia got a fair amount of the minstrel’s attention for a scant few moments, but Mioshi didn’t require any more than a glance. She had already fixed the woman in her mind’s eye, leaving her to return to caring for the group’s dearest, most well endowed member.

Her attention divided between these two things; the woman in her lap, who still looked a bit disoriented to Mioshi, indicating that she would need just a bit more care, and the man in front on the driver’s board of the wagon who screamed at her, and at the wagon in general.

She tugged a bit at the reclining woman’s corset, loosening it a bit more – no doubt to the woman’s embarrassment, but all things came at cost – and answered Werner smoothly without looking up;

“I expect that magic users do not wear much armor,” she answered, “So a bolt or arrow might work. Now, would you please quit screaming?”

Rolling Countryside

The tiny Sif gave a grunt of annoyance.

"I see. Thank you for your observation Duck," she replied to the locally dressed Elysian. It was a slur that anyone familiar with the Elysian wars would understand, and though Titus kept his face blank at this, began to realize that whoever these foreigners were, they were numerous, and came in many forms. As he turned to begin discreetly talking with the other legionnaires however, Werner's outburst took the stage, and just made Sif roll her green eyes however. "Stop being a big baby - I believe Mioshi is correct in her assessment. Isn't that right Coco?" the tiny woman asked the little girl.

"Oh, yeah, totes," she began. "Like, some wear chainmail and stuffs, while Drow like dressing skimpy since it gives them a buff to their mana refresh rate. Me? I like wearing Mahou Shoujo outfits since they got these pretty transformations and stuffs," Coco explained. She said it all blissfully unaware of how absurd that sounded, as though nothing were wrong in the world at all, and that this was simply how things worked. The fact that her mistress, the princess, was still lying in Mioshi's lap and growing redder and redder didn't seem to be a great concern until she reached a key, critical point. "You look like a radish!" Coco laughed.

With her glasses slowly fogging up, Adelaide sprung up to a seat and promptly began tightening the front of her dress again without a word.

"We could attempt bypassing this beleaguered village as my previous group attempted to do," Sif observed, her face plain, "Or. We could intervene, like my previous group bumbled into," she offered. The way the Mini-Neko crossed her tiny hands told them that she was none too happy with the idea, but she was still obliged to say so. "Your pick."

Yuukito peeked out from behind Sif's diminutive form with curiousity, her lower lip pushed out in a pout. Caught between what was happening on the carriage and out in front of it, she was a little confused and content to just sit where she was and watch the events unfold. When she was needed, orders would be given. There would be no further need to sit awkwardly.